AHC: Hyperpower Chola

Is there any way that the Chola Kingsom in southern India could by AD 2000 be the worlds strongest power with incredible reach.
 
Is there any way that the Chola Kingsom in southern India could by AD 2000 be the worlds strongest power with incredible reach.

With a POD far back enough, they could be quite a powerhouse. Well, they were at times, though never at hyperpower levels. Having them in permanent control of the Malacca and Sunda Straits might be a good start. That requires stopping the development of OTL's Indonesian powers, especially the ethnically Malay and Sunda states.
Give them a major lead in naval technology, sufficient for stable naval dominance in the Indian Ocean. The trickier part would be giving them a headstart in industrialization.
The other problem is that, unlike naval industrial great powers of OTL like Britain and the US, they'll have to worry about serious land-based competition directly on their northern border, putting them in the same strategic dilemma of needing to commit resources to both a massive navy and a massive army, that France faced in the Wars of the European Balance.
 
Having ANY country be a Hyperpower is incredibly difficult; IOTL there has only ever been one case in which a country could in any way beconsidered a Hyperpower, that being United States, and even then that was only one for five years as the result of the only other Superpower (and thus the only one of comparable strength and potential) collapsing and the rest of the world having basically been in one or the other sphere or neutral (and none of the neutrals were more than Regional Powers at the time).
 
Having ANY country be a Hyperpower is incredibly difficult; IOTL there has only ever been one case in which a country could in any way beconsidered a Hyperpower, that being United States, and even then that was only one for five years as the result of the only other Superpower (and thus the only one of comparable strength and potential) collapsing and the rest of the world having basically been in one or the other sphere or neutral (and none of the neutrals were more than Regional Powers at the time).
What, in your analysis, bookended this five-year period?
 
What, in your analysis, bookended this five-year period?

Everyone getting over the collective shock of the Soviet Union ceasing to exist, the beginning of the new phases of the rise of China and India and the United States being shown to not be as powerful as it was thought to be.
 
What about Visayas being a part of Chola, Cebu was ruled by the Dynasty from Chola in OTL just before the spanish came.
 
A Travancore-led union, IIRC, but not an hyperpower, although fairly powerful.

Travancore was never a large enough kingdom to be a great power. The South Indian kingdoms that had potential to be great powers at any time were the Chola and Vijayanagar kingdoms. Both were held down from expanding by their rival neighbours who fought against them for centuries. The Cholas had to face the rivalry of the Pandyas, while the Vijayanagar faced the enmity of the Bahmani kingdom. The Cholas reached the zenith of their power under Raja Raja and Rajendra. Vijayanagar had their greatest king in Krishnadeva Raya. The Chola dynasty has a history dating from the time of Mauryas ie. 300 BCE to 1200 CE. But Vijayanagar lasted for little more than two centuries.
 
Travancore was never a large enough kingdom to be a great power.

Agreed, but I was referring to Robinson's scenario. Travancore is the leading state of a league based in South India but with far-flungholdings elsewhere, that is a power in the world of The years of rice and salt.
There's quite a bit of Travancore-wank there. They among first countries to industrialize in that world.
 
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